The New York Times this year has published some admirable journalism on U.S. healthcare. The publication’s story on McKinsey facilitating the opioid crisis was superb, as was its expose on the Providence hospital system going after poor patients for medical bills they weren’t legally required to pay. (McKinsey figured prominently in this story as well.) The publication’s recent story on how the Ascension hospital chain was responsible for its staffing crisis was also commendable.
But the Times’ attempted hatchet job on NYU Langone’s ER department favoring donors, celebrities, and other persons of prominence was shamefully selective and naïve, the healthcare equivalent of the Times sending a reporter to Las Vegas and reporting that the Bellagio casino routinely offers high roller gamblers free airfare, accommodations, and food. It’s a practice that all the top tier casinos offer.
America’s healthcare has long been grossly inequitable, where the wealthy can gain immediate access to doctors who attended the best medical schools and enjoy near Ritz Carlton amenities should they require hospital admissions. Here in Los Angeles, a person who commits to donate $50,000 over a five-year period to Cedars-Sinai gets primo concierge care that not only includes access to the hospital’s best doctors, but also a special parking pass and someone to personally greet and escort them through the facility.
Cedars-Sinai also has designated floors and treatment facilities for V.I.P.s and celebrities, including a special maternity ward for the likes of Kim Kardashian, Gwyneth Paltrow, Victoria Beckham and other privileged women who prefer to experience their labor pains in luxury surroundings. Commoners like me must accept a different standard of care; on a recent visit to a Cedars-Sinai urgent care facility, I created a bit of a ruckus because I had the audacity to insist on being seen by a doctor, not a physician assistant or nurse practitioner “provider” with a fraction of a doctor’s training.
Cedars-Sinai has billboards plastered throughout Los Angeles boasting that it was ranked by U.S. News as the second-best hospital in the country and the best in California. But here’s a ranking that Cedars doesn’t advertise: Leapfrog, a nonprofit organization that evaluates hospital safety, assigned Cedars a “C” rating, which hardly fosters trust or confidence.
By comparison, U.S. News ranks NYU Langone as the nation’s third best hospital, but the facility also enjoys an “A” Leapfrog safety rating. NYU Langone’s Brooklyn facility also enjoys an “A” safety rating.
NYU Langone is one of the few positive healthcare stories in America. For the longest time, New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center was indisputably the Big Apple’s best hospital. When I lived in Manhattan, I routinely asked doctors what hospital they’d choose if they needed medical care and without exception everyone said New York-Presbyterian.
But in recent years, NYU Langone has undergone a remarkable renaissance and that’s because of Ken Langone, one of the most decent and honorable persons to have ever worked within the canyons of Wall Street. As the Times noted in its attempted hatchet job, Langone has personally donated hundreds of millions to NYU’s hospital but also raised about $3 billion from other donors to fund the institution’s expansion and improvements.
The Times thinks its readers should be alarmed that when Langone needed emergency care last year for stomach pain, the octogenarian was assigned to Room 20, which is typically reserved for two types of patients: “Those whose lives are on the line. And those who are V.I.P.s.” Also getting assigned to Room 20 was Senator Chuck Schumer’s wife, who had a fever and shortness of breath.
I’m against politicians getting preferential hospital treatment, as they should be served the same healthcare cooking as their economically disadvantaged constituents. But I’m not bothered or surprised that wealthy hospital donors are given the red-carpet hospital treatment, as it’s a perk I would expect would be included when one writes big checks to healthcare institutions. Practically speaking, the longer Ken Langone remains healthy and alive, the better for NYU’s hospital staff and patients.
The Times offered not even one instance where a patient’s care was compromised because of V.I.P. priority treatment. I’ve had previous dealings with Langone, and I have no doubt that if he was made aware that a patient was more in need of immediate treatment than him, Langone would personally wheel his gurney out of the room.
What does alarm me is that unnamed sources leaked the medical records of Langone and Schumer’s wife; we learn that Langone was treated and sent home for his stomach condition and Schumer’s wife tested negative for hers. Leaking medical records is a criminal offense, and I hope NYU Langone investigates and seeks the prosecution of everyone involved.
I’m also skeptical of former NYU physicians like Michelle Romeo who said they quit because of their outrage that V.I.P.s received preferential treatment. According to NYU, Romeo was passed over for a permanent position at the A-team hospital after completing her residency. That Romeo posed in her scrubs for a New York Times photographer added to my skepticism about her supposed sanctimony.
Another physician who claimed alarm about V.I.P.’s getting preferential treatment was Kimbia Arno, who NYU also said was passed over for a permanent job after completing a fellowship. Another critic was Kristin Carmody, who NYU alleges was terminated because she falsely noted on a medical record that she had personally examined a patient.
Journalists aren’t above seeking preferential medical treatment for their loved ones. CNN’s Jake Tapper to his credit recently disclosed that he used his media credentials to contact a hospital administrator after ER docs at the hospital where his daughter was being treated refused to administer a test he thought was desperately needed. I’m guessing that’s why Tapper declined to identify the hospital that failed to correctly diagnose his daughter had appendicitis.
The ER physicians whose criticisms I take seriously are those railing against outsourcing and the increased ER dominance of the EmCare and TeamHealth staffing firms, which respectively are controlled by the private equity firms KKR and Blackstone. ER docs like Raymond Brovont, who last year was awarded $26 million in a wrongful dismissal lawsuit after raising concerns about staffing issues at a Kansas City ER that was staffed by EmCare.
EmCare and TeamHealth were among the biggest champions of surprise billing, until Congress moved to curb their shameful practices.
Another reason I’m favorably inclined to Ken Langone and NYU’s hospital management is they reportedly were prepared to hire Dr. David Sabatini, an MIT scientist who many believe was well on his way to developing a cure for cancer but was terminated because of sexual harassment allegations former colleagues, including women, believe were unfounded. Sabatini’s potential hiring was derailed after the story leaked to the media and students staged protests.
In an ideal healthcare world, all Americans would have equal access to the same quality of care. But that’s not how the real world operates; people with money get the best seats at concerts, the best tables at restaurants, admission to the best universities for their children, and access to the most influential people. For proof of the latter, just ask Sam Bankman-Fried.
The New York Times is naïve if it believes that NYU Langone’s ER operates differently than any other U.S. hospital.
If the Times genuinely wants to highlight healthcare inequities, it should examine the “F” safety rating of Howard University Hospital, the teaching facility of one of America’s premier Black institutions and located within a stone’s throw away from Congress. Less than one percent of U.S. hospitals have an “F” safety rating, and presumably institutional racism isn’t responsible for Howard University’s poor performance.
Another rating discrepancy worth examining is that of Detroit’s Henry Ford Hospital, which for many years enjoyed an “A” safety rating but it declined to a “C” under the leadership of Wright Lassiter, the hospital’s former Black CEO and current chair of the American Hospital Association. Meanwhile, Henry Ford’s satellite hospital in the affluent suburb of West Bloomfield enjoys an “A” safety rating.
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